Iron Man 2

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The second episode of the Iron Man saga centers on a battle between brilliant, forceful sons driven to preserve the legacies of their brilliant, forceful fathers, which doesn’t exactly make for the same kick-ass comic-book dramatic action we saw in the first episode’s creation of a superhero myth. Neither does dealing with Congressional committees allow Robert Downey, Jr., to fully display the comedic razzle - dazzle nor playful panache he did in his previous Ironclad outing. Still, the sequel delivers enough bracing thrills, colorful characters (such as Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash), and, on disc, overall home theater fun to make it well worth a spin.

With any action movie, it’s customary for sound design to get ramped up in the second half — but with this Blu-ray, it’s the 2.35:1 picture that improves over time. Initially, as if reflecting the shallowness of Tony Stark’s success and excess, images are a little soft, flat, and blandly lit. Later, though, when he reassumes responsibility, there’s literally more dimension to him, with his body showing greater depth and his face more solidity, while the picture exhibits finer detail.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is extremely immersive, making you the driver of Stark’s racecar and the center-stage attraction at Stark Expo 2010. The Monaco race scenes bring lots of smoothly panned drive-bys as vehicles roar behind, beside, and in front of you. Meanwhile, the film’s music (from choral to heavy metal) is admirably full, and bass abounds when the drones whomp down and then roar back into the heavens.

In the three-disc edition, including a DVD with standard-def and digital-copy versions of the movie, extras are spread across the two Blu-rays, and they include a commentary by director Jon Favreau, eight deleted scenes, animatics pop-ups, and AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill” music video — all fun but ultimately disposable. Two hours of featurettes range from lame self-congratulation to interesting tech pieces on motion-capture technology and cool segments on Marvel Comics characters. Mini-back stories (text and photos) on not just this film’s Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) but also The Incredible Hulk’s Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) and Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) — combined with Iron Man 2’s post-credits teaser of Thor’s hammer — hint at the various overlapping Marvel movies to come.

Initially, as if reflecting the shallowness of Tony Stark’s success and excess, images are a little soft, flat, and blandly lit. Later, though, when he reassumes responsibility, there’s literally more dimension to him, with his body showing greater depth and his face more solidity, while the picture exhibits finer detail.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is extremely immersive, making you the driver of Stark’s racecar and the center-stage attraction at Stark Expo 2010. The Monaco race scenes bring lots of smoothly panned drive-bys as vehicles roar behind, beside, and in front of you. Meanwhile, the film’s music (from choral to heavy metal) is admirably full, and bass abounds when the drones whomp down and then roar back into the heavens.